Donna's Blog: Writing to Heal
Exploring the Science of Emotion, Trauma, Health, and Healing
Thank you for joining me in my little corner of the web! I’m Donna Jackson Nakazawa, an award-winning science journalist and speaker passionate about exploring the intricate connections between neuroscience and human emotion. Over the years, my work has been dedicated to uncovering how our early life experiences shape our brains, bodies, and overall well-being. I’ve delved deep into the science of how trauma affects our health and how we can find pathways to healing.
I offer online courses that empower you to reframe your narratives and heal from past trauma through a powerful journaling process, based on the innovative, trauma-informed, mindful Neural Re-Narrating™ program I’ve taught at universities and behavioral health groups nationwide.
My newest book, The Adverse Childhood Experiences Guided Journal, a workbook that applies my writing-to-heal program through exercises and prompts, will give you the guidance and space to process painful thoughts, feelings and memories to bring you peace, healing, and hope.
Feel free to dig into my blog posts – past and present! If you find the information here insightful and valuable, I hope you will also join me on my Substack, Healing Together with Donna Jackson Nakazawa, where I aim to create a warm and welcoming space where we can further explore together the profound connections between our emotions, past experiences, and health. I will be sharing insights, stories, and science-based strategies, all grounded in the latest neuroscience research. For now, as I work on building an engaging and supportive community, all my articles and features will be FREE. I hope you’ll consider following and supporting my work as we build this meaningful space together.
My Online Courses
Your Healing Narrative
Write-to-Heal With Neural Re-NarratingTM
Breaking Free From Trauma
3-hour self-paced workshop
Available now!
Neuroscience-Based Writing Practices to Rewire Your Brain from Trauma
The trauma of your past can’t be undone, but you can take charge of how it affects you. This compassionate journal offers a safe space to help you process, heal, and reclaim your power.
Writing to Heal - Recent Blog Posts
- All Posts
- Angel and the Assassin
- Childhood Disrupted
- Chronic Illness
- Neural Re-Narrating™️
- The Adverse Childhood Experiences Guided Journal
- The Last Best Cure
A few days ago, Katrina Kenison’s new book, Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment, hit stores. (She’s also the author of another magical book, The Gift of an Ordinary Day.) I just picked up my copy and can’t wait to delve in, especially after reading the excerpt she’s posted on her website. Kenison speaks…
It happened again yesterday. I had a cup of tea with a friend of mine. I’ll call her Gail — a fifty-ish-year-old woman with soft blue eyes, cropped auburn hair and black-rimmed glasses. I hadn’t seen Gail in a while; she’s been struggling with Crohn’s for some time. She told me of how she’d…
In an earlier post I talked about how the numbers of Americans with chronic conditions has been escalating so fast it’s frightening. We may tend to brush these sorts of statistics aside, telling ourselves we’re sicker simply because we’re living so much longer. But a new study tells us that’s not the case. Americans…
Here’s another reason why I set out on my journey to find The Last Best Cure. When you are dealing with a chronic condition, as are one out of two American adults, it can’t help but impact family life. When we are distracted by pain or fatigue or worry it’s hard to let joy…
Illness is a catalyst in the search for wholeness and wellness. It is similar to Pi’s experience in Yann Martel’s novel, and the movie, The Life of Pi. After struggling to stay alive in a lifeboat with a ravenous tiger for months, Pi realizes that living with the tiger has forced him to fight…
As I started my quest for The Last Best Cure, I interviewed neuroscientists and pioneers in the brain-body field in hopes of learning everything I could about how we can search for joy despite a persistent history of pain, loss or illness. We know that stress, pain, fear and fatigue — whether they stem…
I’ve been listening to what you have to say. For years, as I’ve traveled around giving talks, and as I’ve corresponded with many of you by email, I’ve heard your message, loud and clear. Pain, fatigue and fear, so many of you have confided to me, are terribly distracting. They narrow our bandwidth to…
It’s hard to believe that after my year-long journey exploring the newest neuroscience on how to activate the healing responses of the brain, The Last Best Cure will finally be in stores in 45 days! As pub date grows closer, I’ve been thinking a lot about how essential taking this journey is – for…
